CHICOPEE — New problems discovered with asbestos and windows in the old Chicopee High School could push up renovation costs by $3 million.

Architects recently completed most of the design and determined the cost of converting building to a middle school for grades six to eight will be $42 million instead of the $38 million initially agreed upon by the state and the city, said City Councilor William A. Zaskey, the chairman of the renovation committee.

“There is more asbestos removal; more work has to be done with the windows, and there is some site work,” he said. “We are hopeful we are catching all the things before construction so we do not have to do a lot of change orders which are expensive.”

But the state School Building Authority in May approved the project at a cost of $38 million and signed a contract agreeing to reimburse the city 80 percent of costs up to $30.1 million.

The School Building Authority just received information about the cost overruns late last week and is reviewing materials submitted by city architects, said Dan Collins, press secretary for the authority.

He could not say if it was possible for the city to increase the grant from the state to include an 80 percent reimbursement of the additional $3 million.

Zaskey said the committee still hopes to go out to bid for a contractor in April and begin construction in the spring. To delay the project will mean it will cost more in materials and other expenses, he said.

The committee has met with Mayor Richard J. Kos, state Sen. James T. Welch, D-West Springfield and state Rep. Joseph F. Wagner, D-Chicopee to see if the amount of reimbursement could be increased.

There is no appeal process but the committee hopes the authority will increase the reimbursement since the city is renovating a building that is more than 110-years-old instead of trying to build a new school that would be far more expensive, Zaskey said.

“If they hold the line we will have to see if the mayor and City Council will be willing to bond for the additional money,” Zaskey said.

Kos said he is working with state and local officials and reviewing all the possible options to deal with the cost overrun.

“It is a serious overage ...hopefully we are going to be protected by this,” he said.

Under the original price, the city’s share of the renovation would have been about $7.8 million. If the state does not agree to reimburse any of the overruns then the cost will climb to $10.8 million for local taxpayers, Kos said.

“We are working with our legislators to see if anything can be done,” he said.

Welch and Wagner did not return calls for comment.

This is not the first time Chicopee has run into problems with cost overruns on school building projects. When Comprehensive High School was built about 10 years ago it was initially expected to cost $74 million and the state has agreed to reimburse the city 90 percent of the costs. But there were about $20 million in cost overruns and the state refused to reimburse any of the additional costs.